Judy drove fast and recklessly, her police siren on and disrupting the tranquility of the morning. She didn't much care though, there may be no proof that any crime was committed or criminal to cuff, but any lead as to where Nick might be was important enough for the misconduct.
Nick's apartment was only a few miles from the Square making her disruption of the peace very short lived. Upon pulling past the big heaters that maintained Sahara Square, Judy turned the dial on the dash, and cool air rushed from the vents. The immense temperature of the 'Damned Desert District' made it her least favorite place in the city, and Nick seemed to somewhat agree with her in that regard, hence hardly ever coming here.
Now what? The sand only pointed her in the SS and nothing more, it didn't give her anymore leads into anywhere he may possibly be. Judy drove down the nearly desolated streets, in search of any sign of him. She moved at a crawl, as her eyes weren't the best in the dark, she looked carefully examining everything hoping, praying for a hint of orange fur, or a big illuminated sign that said something along the lines of' “Nick Wilde this way”.
Judy wasn't that fortunate, all there seemed to be was sand, and the dark buildings, with few exceptions, of a city before 9am. After a few streets the entire thing seemed futile, after all what reason would he have to be here, nearly everything was close.
Nearly everything. Judy got an idea and stopped at the nearest place that had any sign of life. The place happened to be a BP (Bernese Pawtroleum) and she rummaged around the cruiser in search of a photo of Nick. Luckily, the dash housed many of them; all of which seemed to be pictures of him and her together.
All pictures of us. Nick… She ended up picking the one of him in his officer uniform, and climbed from the car into the uncomfortable heat, and quickly hustled into the gas station. The inside wasn't any different from any other building of the type. Shelves filled with sugary snacks and refrigerators filled with various drinks, but she couldn't be bothered with such things.
“Hey has this fox been in here?” Judy asked the cashier, a goat, and held the picture out for him to observe. He looked at over rather closely, Judy half expected him to try and take a bite out of it, but he didn't and eventually shook his head.
“No Ma'am. Haven't seen him. Sorry.”
“Thanks for your time,” she responded before quickly bolting back to the cruiser to search for more possible leads. The next stop was a run down looking bar that she didn't think Nick would have went to, but no point in not at least checking.
Mos Eisley Cantina. I guess all the normal names were taken. Judy entered the bar, flashing her ID on the way, and found herself immediately sickened by the atmosphere. The stench of cigarette smoke and alcohol were overwhelming, and the repetitive song being played didn't help. Her gut instinct was to leave immediately, but considering the stakes that wasn't exactly an option.
I hope Nick wasn't here. Judy thought as she walked around asking the intoxicated bar dwellers if they'd seen him. She got very few answers, most of the mammals there were either to drunk to care, or way to drunk and passed out. Her investigation finally brought her to the bar. Actually getting up onto a bar stool was challenging, with how it spun getting a good grip on it was more than a little difficult.
“What'll you have missy?” A large black bull asked her.
“I'm not exactly here to drink. I'm looking for a friend.” Judy responded, holding the photo up for the bull to see.
He took it from her and looked it over closely, “Why don't you order something while I look the photo over, and then I’ll give ya an answer.”
“Is anything here Non-Alcoholic.”
“Afraid not ma'am.”
Judy sighed, picking up a drink menu and turned the pages, finally stopping on a drink that looked interesting. Judy sat the menu back down and then proceeded to order, “I'll have a carrot cocktail. Can I have it to go?”
The Bull laughed, “A rabbit ordering something with carrots in it. Surprise. Surprise. Coming right up miss.”
Judy watched as he got a plastic cup and put it under a nozzle, a dark liquid—alcohol—leaked from it into the cup and he poured in something that resembled the color of carrots and proceeded to stir it up, before finally putting a lid on it and a straw through said lid,” Here you go, that'll be $6.99.”
Judy dug around in her pockets in search of money to pay for a drink she didn't even really want. She found her cash stash in her back right pocket, counted out the cash, and handed him 7 bucks. He handed her the drink and she took a quick sip of it.
It tastes pretty good. Judy thought, before slurping more of it down. She then turned her attention back to the bull, who was looking at the picture, “So have you seen him?”
“Hmm...” He put his hand to his face and studied the photo closely, “No, Nick hasn't been in here recently. He hasn't been in here in at least a few months.”
“If you knew who he was, and that he hadn't been in here then why did you make me order a drink?” Judy asked, quickly getting agitated by the large Bovine wasting her time.
“Getting people to buy drinks increases revenue,” He responded while getting another patron a refill of something that smelled repulsive. Judy got up to leave, and quickly made her way to the door. Before she could actually leave though the useless bull called out to her, “I hope you find him!”
Not there again. Judy groaned, seeing lights on inside Mystic Spring Oasis, but begrudgingly she stopped anyways. She entered the naturalist club, and almost immediately missed the terrible bar. The first time when her and Nick came here it was awful. The image of a giraffe penis now forever ingrained in her head.
“Hey, has Nick been here?” Judy walked up to the counter and asked the putrid smelling Yak who owned the place. She flashed him the photo she had been carrying around, his hair made it impossible to tell if he was even actually looking in her direction or not.
“Yeah man he was here,” The Yak finally responded, in his outdated, trippy accent, “a few hours ago actually.”
“Do you know where he went?” Judy asked desperately, her tone heavy with worry.
“Uhhhhhhhhh… he didn't say… he did have this little dude with him though. The guy had the biggest ears. Like giant.”
Finnick. Judy thanked the stoner, before setting out on in search of his rusty beat up van. She surveyed the neighborhood carefully, starting closest to the Mystic Springs Oasis and branching out from there.
The surrounding alleys and streets didn't seem all that promising, the vehicles parked there were definitely shoddy, but none of them were the van she was looking for. Judy continued outwards, taking the occasional sip of her drink, and keeping her search confined to the poorer part of the Square; it was unlikely that Nick and Finnick had snuck out early to go to the resort.
A few streets later, the small fennec fox came into view. He sat behind a stand that advertised discount lottery tickets. The tickets were either fake or stolen, but a small group of mammals waiting to buy tickets didn't seem to know or care.
“Hey Judy,” Finnick greeted, before going back to handing out tickets.
“Hey Finnick,” She responded, “You do know you're breaking the law in the presence of an officer.”
“Oh. Sorry,” He murmured, Still handing out his fraudulent tickets as if she wasn't there, “Bunnies being cops is still new to me.”
“I honestly couldn't care less about your small scale fraud right now. Have you seen Nick today?”
Finnick counted the money he extorted, without even looking up he responded,“Yeah, he was around.”
“Do you, by any chance, know where he may have went?”
“He said something about polar bears.”
Judy left the fox without a word, climbing into her car without so much as a delay, and rushed to the border between Sahara Square and Tundratown.
